Link.

love this series on how to carve your own stamps put together by Geninne [via maya*made]

The Artful Storybook: Mixed-Media Artists Create Handmade Tales by Terry Taylor, published by Lark Books (July 1, 2008).

There are some lovely projects in this book all based on collage and altered books techniques. There are some stunning examples – with the cover project being my favourite ‘the queen of tarts’. Using a chipboard mannequin form and various papers and muslin and decorative stencils. I also really enjoyed the ‘Field journal – birds of prey’ which utilises an old grid-ruled composition book, various ephemera and notepapers and images.

On the downside, the instructions that go with the projects are not particularly clear instead there is a working process which the artists used to create their books – in order to not give too much away? Also there are quite a few quite hideous projects included as well – but like anything – taste is relative! All over though I think there is much to appreciate and inspire in this book.

Bent, Bound And Stitched: Collage, Cards And Jewelry With A Twist by Giuseppina Cirincione, published by North Light Books (May 21, 2008).

A wonderful book, full of techniques and how-to’s for the collage and mixed media fans. The projects all centre around creating interesting cards and jewelry, using a variety of techniques such as stamping, sewing, wire work and stenciling etc and adding various layers of texture using ephemera, found objects, vintage buttons and cards, punching holes and lots more. All the techniques are explained very clearly with good photos of the process steps.

An example of the some of the projects include photo cards – using a reproduction of an old photo and making a mini wire coat hanger. The photo is stitched, glued and enhanced with various papers and trims, then attached to the mini wire hanger which is in turn attached to a back drop of vintage papers. There are bent wire jewelry and photo stands, a miniature photo frame using a copper sheet and a really neat pendant photo frame using an altered domino block.

There are many many great projects in this book – most of which involve wire twisting of some sort – this is the main techique that joins all these projects together – so if you are interested in getting your hands around some pliers and have a stash of vintage ephemera to use up – this is the book for you.

Aside from all the cool stamping, which completely overwhelms me, I LOVE this packaging idea. AWESOME for the upcoming silly season. Link is FIXED, sorry for the confusion and thanks to the commentors for finding me the link again! I’m having linkitis at the moment.

Kate sent me this link to the how-to guide to decorating dominoes with rubber stamps

In my family there’s a tradition of carving images to make keepsakes and heirlooms. My granddad, our Papa Hall, lived in eastern Tennessee and carved and whittled amazing animals from pieces of scrap wood with his pocket knife—when he died, Dad found among his possessions the fancy carving tools we gave him one Christmas—guess they just didn’t measure up to the old pocket knife! Dad and my younger sister carried on the tradition by producing beautiful woodcut images. I’ve only recently taken up the carving knife myself, and found that my carving cut projects seem to want to take center-stage in multi-media pieces like this brooch.

Here’s what you’ll need: Glass microscope slide cover for each brooch, 1” x 1” + 1 square of lightweight cardstock for each brooch, also 1” x1”.

a favorite rubber stamp no larger than 1” square, or a 1” square piece of your favorite stamp carving medium and carving tools to match | artist’s paper for printing the image. I used watercolor paper here, but any light-colored, matte-finish art paper on which you can paint will do.

black or brown stamp pad | white craft glue | watercolor paints and a fine paintbrush | ¼”-wide metallic foil tape with adhesive backing | a pin back from a craft or beading shop

Instructions:

Select your stamp or design and carve one of your own, no larger than 1” square. A design with simple lines will work best. Keep in mind in selecting your design that the edges of this brooch will be covered by the foil tape in the finished product, and remember that the image you select will be reversed when you print it! In my example I’ve used a sketch I adapted from a black and white image of Mt. Fuji, and carved out of a piece of MasterCarve.

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